Father's Day gift from a son

Ainan is not one to buy a gift - he'd rather make one.

For his mother, he made a perfume for Mother's Day. For me - he made a computer game. It was an arcade type game which he had pieced together using some sort of programme that allowed him to play with game elements to structure something to his liking.

I was touched. He had noted that, to relax, I sometimes play computer games. So, he thought he'd make one just for me.

On opening his surprise gift, I let him play it to show me how it worked. I think he felt a strange kind of reward to be able to give in this way. He seemed most content. So was I.

I did note that he was much better at it than I was. He has the advantage of youth, I suppose.

What I find most interesting about Ainan's gifts to us, is that he managed to create an individualized gift that matched the personality and passions of each parent. That shows a certain discernment - and thoughtfulness. It also showed something else: a flexibility in doing whatever was necessary to achieve the creative goal. In the first case, he had to construct a perfume from aromatic chemicals - in the other he had to learn how to construct a computer game - and design one that he thought I would enjoy. He succeeded in both endeavours.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged eight years and five months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, four years and ten months, and Tiarnan, twenty-seven months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of gifted education, IQ, intelligence, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, College, University, Chemistry, Science, genetics, left-handedness, precocity, child prodigy, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, wunderkind, wonderkind, genio, гений ребенок prodigy, genie, μεγαλοφυία θαύμα παιδιών, bambino, kind)